Reclosure container



United States Patent 3,115,272 RECLOSURE CONTAINER Joseph HenryFredette, New York, N.Y., assignor to American Can Company, New York,N.Y., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Dec. 23, 1960, Ser. No. 78,142 1Claim. (Cl. 220-94) The present invention relates to reclosurecontainers and more particularly to a hermetically sealed tear stripcontainer having an imperforate top closure member which is providedwith an easily assembled plastic handling knob.

Sheet metal tearing strip containers are used extensively for thepackaging of many types of food and non-food products. Such containersare frequently made very attractive in appearance by means of a pleasinglabel design which is lithographed on their side walls. The presentinvention makes it possible to further enhance the attractiveness ofthis type of container by providing it with a plastic knob which iseasily snapped into position in a recess formed in its top closuremember and which is thereafter permanently retained in position tofacilitate the handling of the closure member. The knob is preferablymade of a hard flexible plastic such as polyacrylic resin or polystyreneresin which is attractive in both its clear and tinted forms. Thus, inaddition to its function of affording greater convenience of handling,the knob adds considerably to the appearance of the container and isuseful in contributing to. its identity factor, which is so import-antin modern merchandising.

An object of the invention, therefore, is the provision of ahermetically sealed tear strip container which is provided with ahandling knob which may be secured in place without requiringperforation of the container closure, and which adds to both theconvenience and appearance of the container.

Another object is the provision of such a knob which may be easilypressed intoposition in the container closure member, and thus isadapted for easy assembly without complicated equipment.

Numerous other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparentas it is better understood from the following description, which, takenin connection with the accompanying drawings, discloses a preferredembodiment thereof.

Referring now to the drawings:

FlG-URE l is a perspective view of a tearing strip container embodyingthe priciples of the instant invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional detail, on a greatly enlarged scale, takensubstantially along the line 2-2 in FIG. 1, the lower portion of thecontainer being broken away;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation, on a reduced scale, of the container of FIG.1 after the tearing strip has been removed and the closure memberdetached from the container body; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional detail, corresponding to FIG. 2, of amodified form of the invention.

As a preferred and exemplary embodiment of the instant invention, thedrawing illustrates a sheet metal container which comprises acylindrical tubular body which is formed with the usual side seam 12. Apair of spaced circumferential score lines 14, 16 are formed in the body10 adjacent its upper end to set off a removable tearing strip 18 whichat one end terminates in a free tongue 20 adapted to be engaged by a canopening key (not shown) to facilitate the opening of the container.

An annular collar 22 is positioned within the body 10 inwardly of thetearing strip 18. The upper end of the collar 22 is formed into aninwardly turned hollow seating curl 24, while the lower marginal endportion 26 of 3,115,272 Patented Dec. 24, 1963 the collar 22 is expandedoutwardly into an outwardly projecting body bead 28 to securely lock thecollar 22 to the body 10.

The bottom of the body 10 is closed by means of a bottom closure member30 which is preferably secured to the body 10 in a conventional doubleseam 32, while the upper end of the body 10 is closed by a top closuremember 34 which is also secured to the body in a double seam 36.

The top closure member 34 is formed with an annular countersink wall 38which forms the inner layer of the top double seam 36-. The lowerportion of the countersink .wall 38 merges into a short horizontal stepwall 40 which preferably seats on the collar curl 24, as best seen inFIG. 2. The step wall 40 in turn merges into a short depending annularwall 42 which forms the side wall of a large recess 44 which is formedin the top closure member 34. As best seen in FIG. 2, the annular recessWall 42 friotionally engages the inside portion of the collar curl 24 tohold the top-closure member 34 in place thereon after the tearing strip18 has been removed.

The annular recess wall 42 merges into horizontally extending annularwall 46 which forms a portion of the bottom wall of the large recess 44.The remaining, centrally disposed portion of the large recess 44 isformed into a second, smaller recess 48 which comprises a circularbottom wall 5% and an annular side wall 52 which depends from the inneredge of the annular wall 46. The upper portion of the wall 52 is formedinto an inwardly projecting shoulder 54 which overhangs the lowerportion of the wall 52 and provides the means for securing a closurehandling knob 60 in place in the top closure member 34.

The knob 60 is preferably made from a suitable hard flexible plasticsuch as polyacrylic or polystyrene resin which may be either clear ortinted, depending on its desired esthetic qualities.

The knob 60 is hollow, being formed with a flat top wall 62 and anannular side wall 64 which is formed into a spring collet by a pluralityof vertical slots 66 which divide it into a plurality of identicalspring segments 68, each of which is capable of independent flexingmovernent. Each spring segment 68 includes an arcuate vertical portion70 and a generally horizontal foot portion 72 which extends radiallyfrom the bottom of the vertical portion 70 and at its outer edge isvertically bevelled to form a cam surface 74. As initially made, theknob 60 is formed from a single piece of plastic wherein the springsegments 68 are unflexed, and the diameter of the knob 60 as measuredacross the unfiexed spring segments 68 is somewhat larger than thediameter of the recess 48.

The knob 60 is assembled to the top closure member 34 by beingpositioned in vertical alignment above the recess 48 and presseddownwardly. This downward movement brings the cam surfaces 74 intocontact with the recess shoulder 54, thus causing the spring segments 68to flex inwardly and snap past the shoulder 54 and enter the recess 48.After passing the shoulder 54, the spring segments 64 expand outwardlyto bring the outer edges of the foot portions 72 into engagement againstthe recess wall 52 beneath the shoulder 54. The recess 48 is preferablyso dimensioned that the spring segments 68, in so expanding, do notreturn to their original unflexed positions, but are held in a partiallyinwardly flexed position so that they hold the knob 60 tightly in therecess 40.

It will be obvious that the knob 60 may be assembled to the top closuremember either before or after the latter is seamed to the container body10. After final assembly, the filled and sealed container ismerchandised in the usual manner, and is opened by the ultimate consumerby removal of the tearing strip 18 to detach the top closure member 34from the body 10. Thereafter, by grasping the knob 60, the consumer mayreadily remove the top closure member 34 from the container, as seen inFIG. 3. To reclose the container, the top closure member 34 need merelybe positioned above the collar curl 24 and pressed into frictionallyseated position thereon.

FIG. 4 discloses a somewhat modified form of the invention wherein thesmall recess 48 is omitted and a locking shoulder 80 is formed in theannular side Wall 42 of the large recess 44. In this form, the knob 60is essentially similar in construction to the preferred form disclosedin FIGS. 1 to 3, except that the foot portions 72 of the spring segments68 are radially elongated sufficiently so that they snap past theshoulder 80 and look therebeneath to hold the knob 60 in place when theknob is assembled to the top closure member. In this modified form, asin the preferred form, the spring segments 68 are held in slightlyflexed position, after passing the shoulder 80, to more firmly retainthe knob 60 against movement relative to the top closure member 34.

It will be obvious that instead of being formed as continuous beads, asseen in the drawings, the shoulders 54 or 80 which hold the knob 66) inplace may be discontinuous and may comprise a plurality of spaced beador lug segments beneath which the spring segments 68 engage.

It is thought that the invention and many of its attendant advantageswill be understood from the foregoing description, and it will beapparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction andarrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the formhereinbefore described being merely a preferred embodiment thereof.

I claim:

A reclosure container having an imperforate countersunk closureremovably secured to the upper end of said container to provide areclosure therefor,

the bottom wall of said reclosure having a knob-retaining recess boundedby an annular side wall,

said recess side wall having overhanging shoulder means at the topthereof, and

a knob formed of resilient plastic material including a top Wall and anannular series of spring segments formed integrally therewith anddepending therefrom,

said spring segments forming a major portion of the side wall of saidknob, and having an outer periphery of downwardly and inwardly taperedfrustoconical configuration to facilitate manual grasping of said knobside wall,

each said segment having a laterally extending lower portion,

said knob at said segment lower portions having a diameter normallygreater than that of said recess, said segment lower portions beingdisposed within said recess beneath said overhanging shoulder means tothereby retain said segment lower portions under positive compression insaid recess to firmly secure said knob to said container closure.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,299,321 Gerrard Apr. 1, 1919 1,642,478 Bardet et a1 Sept. 13, 19271,965,175 Dolan July 3, 1934 2,523,285 Erb Sept. 26, 1950 2,553,880Stigler May 22, 1951

